A Cord of Three
by SpartaLazor
Summary: Noble Six and Emile fought alongside the Master Chief on the Halo Installation 04 after they barely escaped Reach. Now they're back, ready to continue the fight against the Covenant and the Flood. But, there are still secrets left untold, and Noble Six's is bigger than anyone else's. Sequal to Three Are Better Than One. Summary might suck. Rated T to be safe.
1. Back in Action

_Chapter One: Back in Action_

* * *

Though one maybe overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. -Ecclesiastes 4:12

* * *

"Six, that is complete bullshit," Emile protested, as he folded his arms across his chest, glaring down at the comm screen that showed Noble Six on it. Emile was out of his armor for once, wearing drab green UNSC fatigues. He was still a little sore in his side from where he had been hit in the final run on the Autumn, when they had destroyed the Halo ring.

Six shook his head. "It makes complete sense," he argued. "But what you're saying is stupid all around." He too, was out of his armor, and wearing the exact same thing as Emile, green fatigues. He was on a Pelican, heading down to Earth.

Emile scoffed and looked over at the Master Chief, who was helping Cortana file the report of the Halo incident. "What do you think about this, Chief?"

John shook his head sadly. "Both of you are wrong. I'm the right one here, you should go with what I said."

Cortana rolled her eyes, as she watched from her pedistal next to John's terminal. "You guys have been at this for an hour, and you still haven't told me what the deal is."

"This is a very serious matter," Emile said, leaning against the wall, staring at Six on the screen. Six rolled his eyes as Emile continued. "Six is going down to Earth for a week, since he somehow managed to get some leave time, and Chief and I didn't, and we're debating what he's going to bring back for lunch when he gets back. Chief said hot dogs, I say hamburgers, and Six wants fried chicken."

The purple AI groaned as she face palmed. "Really?" she asked, increduously. "That's what this whole arguement was about?" Cortana glared at John. "I assume that you're wanting me to take your side in this right?"

Shrugging, he nodded. "Wouldn't hurt."

"Why doesn't Six just bring back some barbeque, that way no one gets what they want, and you all get food," Cortana suggested, clasping her hands behind her back. "That would work right? If you want, I could go ahead and place the order from right here."

"Nah," Six said, waving his hand. "I'll get it on my way up." There was a silence as Cortana and Six stared at each other.

"Are you going to tell me yet?" Cortana asked.

Six sighed. "That's the third time you asked today," he complained. "My answer remains the same. Maybe." With that, he cut the comm, leaving them staring at a blank screen.

"And my question remains the same," Emile said, flopping down on his cot. "What the hell was that all about?"

"It's none of your business," Cortana replied, as she returned to help John file the report. The Master Chief stared at her for a few seconds, before resuming his work.

Emile stared at the roof as the room went silent. It had been three days since they first arrived on the Cairo Station, and their armor was getting replaced, expect Six's, who's armor was Gen II Mark VI, which was the prototype for the Spartan IVs.

His mind wandered to the events of the past weeks...

* * *

_"Seriously, like it's been three weeks," Six said, leaning back in the copilot's seat of the Longsword. "Our food supplies are almost out, and we have no idea where that UNSC station is."_

_John sighed and placed his head in his palms. "We're lost in space. It might be a while before anyone finds us."_

_"Then shouldn't we be saving power and turn the engines off," Emile asked, sharpening his knife against his forearm like he had in the past._

_Cortana appeared on the terminal, smirking. "You don't know much about space, do you?"_

_"I was made to kill, so no."_

_"According to Issac Newton, an object in motion will stay in motion unless other forces, such as friction and gravity, act upon it, and make it stop. Since neither friction and gravity are in space, then we don't have to worry about the engines, since they were turned off shortly after we left the ring."_

_"So, they are off?"_

_"Yeah."_

_Emile blew out a breath, and went back to sharpening the kukri on his armor. Other than the sound of the slight scraping, there was silence._

_Six was staring down at his helmet, looking at his relfection in the golden visor. John breifly looked over at him, before returning his head to his hands. This was how the last three weeks of traveling in the Longsword had gone. They had to ration the food carefully, so they could last as long as possible._

_"Cortana, scan for any signal again," John ordered, not even looking up. They were all tired. Tired of being cramped up in the small space of the tiny bomber._

_Sighing, Cortana began another scan. "I'll try, but we might not be able to...wait, I've got something."_

_Instantly, all three of the Spartan's head bolted up, looking at the AI, waiting for some good news._

_"It's a human frequency, so I'll try to contact them." There was a few more seconds of quiet, and Cortana spoke again. "This is UNSC AI Cortana, attempting to establish contact with any UNSC forces. Survivors of Halo on board, Spartan A239, Spartan B312, and Spartan 117. Do you read?"_

_There was a burst of static. This was the moment of truth._

_"Yes, we read you, but you're breaking up, and we'll lose you any minute," a voice said, filled with static. "However, we will transmit our coordinates so you can make your way to ONI station Delta-Four."_

_The same thing was going through all of their minds. "ONI station? I thought it was a UNSC station," Emile said, shooting Six a look. After all, Six was the one that told them which direction that the escapees of the Gates of Hell had gone._

_"Well," Six said, scratching his neck. "The captain of the UNSC Gates of Hell was with ONI, I think, so that might be why, yeah."_

"Emile. Emile? Emile!"

Emile snapped out of his daydream, and looked over at Cortana, who was standing with her hands on her hips. "What?"

"Admiral Hood wants to see you and Chief," she said. "It's apparently urgent."

Sitting up, Emile groaned. "All I want to do is sleep in a nice cot for once, and I get interrupted. Let's see if this is actually important or not."

* * *

"We just broke through the atmosphere," the voice said over the Pelican's intercom. "We'll be touching down on Earth in about ten minutes.

Six looked up at the red haired woman sitting across from him. "Are you sure about this?"

Ashley sighed. "You've asked seven times since we left the Cairo," she said, folding her arms. "And I'm pretty sure of what I'm doing. And besides, this is the second time I've been to Earth, the first was when I was pregnant with that Marine."

"You keep referring to him as 'that Marine,'" Six told her. "You've never once called him your son, or let alone by his first name."

"So?" Ashley shot back. "I never wanted to have a kid, and I really don't care what I call him."

"Ash, you his mother. You should care at least a little bit," Six protested. "What happened to maternal insticts, or what ever they call it now?"

Ashley glared at him. "Normal people care about their children," she deadpanned, with a hint of an ominous tone in her voice. She didn't even notice that the other passengers on the Pelican were evesdropping in on their conversation. "We're not normal. Those bastards stripped us of every last piece of humanity in us."

"You were given a choice," Six pointed out. "You could've turned away, and never became a Spartan."

Shaking her head, Ashley continued. "You don't understand, Six. They got us at a weak moment of our lives, just after our parents were killed. We were too young to think of anything but revenge at that time."

"Maybe so," Six said, "but they didn't take all of our humanity. Most normal people think of us as freaks, but we're not. We're people too."

Ashley huffed as the back hatch of the Pelican opened, indicating that they were on Earth. "You referred to them as normal people, which means that even you don't believe that." She stormed out of the hatch, leaving Six sitting speechless.

He turned his head, and saw the other passengers staring at him. "Win some, lose some," he said, standing up. There were some forced chuckles, and Six knocked on the door the the cockpit.

The door slid over, revealing the pilot tired, resting her head on her hands and chewing some gum. "What?"

"When are you heading up again?"

"Half-hour."

Six nodded and walked out the back hatch. "There goes my week," he muttered, watching from a distance as Ashley climbed into her rental car, some luxury sports car. He sighed. "I need to get some barbeque."

**_A/N: First chapter's a little short, and I tried to have a mix of serious and humor into it, so I hope that went well._**

**_I don't know why I'm posting this earlier, as it makes a grand total of four stories that I'm working on at one time. My plan is to work on stories that are more popular first, and then go from there._**

**_To answer _**_SilverAngel** who reviewed to the last chapter of Three Are Better Than One, TJA stands for The Journey Ahead.**_

_**This time, the review goal is to top 250. Last story currently is at 164, so we need to top that.**_

_**Peace out!**_


	2. Competition

**Beta read by Dejae and shadowblazex22. Posted from my phone, since I'm about to take the test to get my driving permit. Wish me luck!**

Emile shrugged as he looked down into the crate. "Eh, I don't know," he said. "It's missing something."

"Well, you can modify it later," Admiral Hood told him. "But this is the only thing we have that fits you. And we even had to down size it." He ran his fingers over the golden visor of the pitch black EVA armor. "It's even got a sheath for your kukri, embedded in the right shoulder."

"Well, sir," Emile said after a second. "It'll have to do. Send it to our room, and I'll make some personal attachments." He saluted, and turned around, heading straight back to their room. Chief shrugged and did the same, following behind the III.

"At least it was for something important this time," John said, easily catching up to Emile. "Think you'll get used to it?"

"Eventually," Emile replied. "I've worn that old suit of armor for years. It'll be hard to adapt to the newer model." He sighed, remembering the times his armor saved his life. "But at least it has that new armor smell."

A few Marines stumbled past the Spartans, pointing and talking amongst themselves, smiling and giving the Spartans thumbs up. John observed this action, finding it odd since most normal humans found it wierd to be around the freaks, even though he'd saved their lives more than once.

Emile chuckled. "We're famous, Chief. Won't be long before some camera crews start coming aboard." He paused for a second, thinking of something to say. "How any Purple Hearts do you think Six earned? Twenty?"

John slapped Emile on the shoulder lightly, trying not to dislocate it. "I'd think maybe three," he answered. "If you think back, he was stabbed, he fell off a bridge, and he got shot in the shoulder..." He trailed off, trying to count all the times Noble Six had been wounded on the Halo ring.

"My point exactly," the III stated. "Even I can't count how many there were. It seemed like every time we turned around, he was on the ground knocked out."

"But he still put up one hell of a fight along the way," John argued, defending their ally. "Sure, he has his flaws, but he still pulled through." He glanced out a nearby window, staring at the giant globe outside. Earth.

Emile followed his line of sight. "Yeah, but somehow that lucky bastard got a week of leave, and what do we get? To stay here on this boring-ass space station."

Cortana's avatar suddenly appeared on a screen on the wall, jumping from screen from screen to keep up with the Spartans. "You know Ashley bought a house, and was retiring, right? ONI knows how Six feels about her, and gave him some time off to see her off before going back on active duty," she explained.

"I also care about Ashley," Emile blurted out. "I mean, she was on my team for a few weeks, so why wouldn't I?" He folded his arms. "But no, ONI doesn't give either me nor Chief, the real heros of Halo, any time off."

John sighed. "Honestly, I don't really care. As long as there's Covenant to be killed, then I happy to do so."

Cortana sadly shook her head, but there was a smile on her face. "My my, John. I've got a lot of work to do."

They reached their room, and Cortana faded from the screen. Emile pressed the button next to the door, which then slid up into the roof. The warm aroma of barbeque wafted out, and even caught the attention of a few Marines.

There was a bucket, much like the ones used for fried chicken, sitting on the table in the middle of the room, and paper plates and plastic forks on either side of it. In one of the cots, there was a bulge under the blanket.

"What do we have here?" Emile asked, walking into the room, spotting the lump under the cover's on Six's cot. "Someone's home early."

"There was a slight hitch," the lump called out. "And now I'm back."

John shrugged as he grabbed a plate off of the table, and dumped a large blob of barbeque onto it. "Fine with me," he said, plopping down on his cot. "That means that we can start training earlier."

Emile and Six groaned, and Emile took a fork and the whole bucket back over to his cot. "Please, not training," he sarcastically cried out. "After all we've done for you."

"At any minute, a Covenant fleet can jump into the system, and I want you two to be ready." John shoved a forkfull of the food into his mouth, chewing and swallowing. "After all, this is Earth."

"We kicked Covie, and Flood, ass on the Halo ring, and I'm sure we can pull it off again," Six mumbled from under his drab green UNSC regulation blanket. "This time we have more troops, more ships, and OPDs."

Emile nodded, tapping the window behind his cot with the back of his hand. "Ain't nothing gonna get past them in one piece. There must be hundreds of those MAC guns."

"Roughly three hundred," Cortana informed them, appearing on her pedistal. "Reach didn't have that many, not even a hundred...I might be wrong on that. 78% of all UNSC military files on that planet were lost when we lost it."

Six sat up, groaning. "Don't remind me. I saw hell there." He thought for a second. "Wouldn't they have backed up the files?"

Chief shrugged. "Not really, since there were no files recovered. ONI might be hiding something."

"Sorry if I brought back bad memories," Cortana apologized. "But still, Earth naturally would have more, since humans have been on it longer. Homeworlds have to be protected you know."

"I'd hate to see what's guarding them Prophets' homeworld," Emile added, devouring another mouthful of barbeque. "Twenty gazillion supercarriers, I'd bet."

"Actually," Cortana said, causing Emile to roll his eyes. "That would be unlikely, even if they had that number. I doubt that there would be much protection, since the Covenant has be plowing through human planets for decades. They wouldn't think of us as much of a threat."

Emile got the picture. "So if we knew where one of their homeworlds was, we could go there and massacre their civilians for a change."

Nodding, Cortana continued. "High ranking UNSC officials thought that same thing, and have been digging throught captured Covenant tech, searching for anything that would help them along their way."

"And how has that been going?" Emile asked, tossing the empty barbeque bucket aside.

"Not so well."

"I didn't think so."

John set his cleaned plastic plate on the table, tossing the fork across the room, bounced it off the wall, and into the trash can.

Emile threw his fork, attempting to beat the Chief's throw with a perfect toss, but it completely missed, and he cursed under his breath.

"Well, then," Chief said, standing up and tossing his plate like a frisbee and perfectly landing it in the garbage can, rubbing it into Emile's face, "I guess it's time for some training."

* * *

"When he said training," Emile said, "I thought it would be something harder than this." He reloaded his SRS Sniper Rifle, and took aim down the shooting range. He and Six were competeing for the highest score, which the station's AI would calculate, when Cortana wasn't bugging it.

"Yeah," Six agreed, pulling the bolt back on his Sniper Rifle. He looked the weapon over, remembering all the memories the weapon brought back. "I think Jun would be kicking our asses at this right now."

"Probably." Emile squeezed the trigger, and the loud crack echoed throughout the room. The computer beeped, and the moniter displayed a perfect headshot, adding another fifty points to his total score.

Some Marines applauded in the background, already far surpassed by the Spartan's scores. Six glanced back and saw money change hands. He smiled, and reached for a button on the side of the scope. Mashing it down, he pulled the scope off, leaving the weapon with only iron sights.

He took in a deep breath, and steadied the SRS, and fired. When the computer beeped, it show a head shot, and added fifty to his score.

Grand total; Emile-1350. Six-1350. Dead tie.

"Making this hard, huh?" Emile asked cockily. "Get prepared to lose." He too ripped of the scope, tossing the attachment to the side. He took aim, and fired, pulled the bolt back, fired again, pulled the bolt back, fired again. It all happened in a few seconds.

He ejected the empty clip, and threw it over his shoulder. First shot had hit the shoulder, second was a headshot, followed by another headshot. The computer added 125 to his score, putting him in the lead.

"Beat that," Emile said, loading a new clip into the rifle.

Six smile, propping his SRS against the wall. He went over to a weapon crate by the door, and selected a DMR and a few spare mags. "I think I will," he replied, firing off three shots in rapid sucession, barely taking time to aim. Three headshots, putting him in the lead by 25 points.

Emile scrowled. "You're lucky that they don't have shotguns here," he muttered, reached for the BR55 that some forgetfull Marine had left out. "This'll have to work." He fired, letting the triple round burst hit the target in the chest. They were now back to the tie.

"You wanna just end this before it gets outta hand?" Six asked, glancing at the scores on the computer. "You doing relatively good for a close quarters combat specialist."

"Scared?" Emile taunted, pulling the Battle Rifle's bolt back. "Thirty seconds, shoot like hell, at the end who ever has the most points wins."

"You're on."

A Marine ran up to a terminal, and pressed a few buttons. "There. You're all set up." She back up to her position, "First shot starts the timer. And my money's on you, Battle Rifle."

"That is a safe investment," Emile said, raising his rifle at the target, peering down the scope. "You take the first shot, Six."

Smirking, Six leveled his M392. "That's your mistake." He fired.

The next thirty seconds, the whole shooting range was filled with thunderous cheers from Marines and the echoed sound of gunfire, which only stopped twice when the one of the Spartans had to reload.

When the timer beep, the scores stopped going up. Smoke from the weapons filled the room, and Six ejected the last spent round in his DMR.

"The winner is...Battle Rifle Spartan, by five points!" the female Marine exclaimed, and others joined in on her excitement, while others swore and handed over their money.

Six shook his head sadly as he looked up at the screen. 3150 to 3145. "I'll be damned," Six said, slapping Emile on the shoulder. "You did well."

Emile nodded. "I know I did. We III's can beat you IV's any day."

Cortana appeared on the terminal, glaring at Emile. "I don't think that you should be saying that aloud, Emile. ONI might not want that getting out."

"Ah, who cares what ONI wants?"

Shrugging, Cortana changed the subject. "John's on his way to the armory to see his new armor, which arrived early. Your armor is in your room, Emile. It was just delivered. I want the both of you to suit up and meet John in the armory. The award ceremony will start in a half hour."

Emile sighed and rolled his eyes. "Do we have to go to that? It's going to be boring. I garuntee that nothing exciting is going to happen there."

Six nodded. "I'm going to get a bitch-load of Purple Hearts, and that's all. I really don't want to be there."

"Well, if you go, you'll have to wait in the armory," Cortana said. "With lots and lots of guns. And if a shotgun and DMR are modifed and taken, I'm sure Admiral Hood will understand."

"You know, I suddenly have the urge to go to this award ceremony." Emile headed for the door, and one could spot the childish smile on his face. Shotguns were like crack to him. You could easily use them to get him to do what you wanted. Same for kukri's.

"What the hell, I'll go," Six said, throwing his hands up in defeat. "But I'm only in it for the gun, that's all."

Cortana nodded. "That's all I ask, then you can go shooting them off in the new simulation training room on the Athens."

"I look forward to that," Six told her as she exited the room.

* * *

Laura Bently sighed as she cut the carrot that she was going to use for supper, pausing only to look up at the TV in her aparment. She and her daughter lived alone, with her husband in the Navy. She had short blond hair, blue eyes, and stood rather tall for a woman of thirty-five.

"When's dad coming home?" Amber Bently asked, walking into the room. "You said that he might get some time off soon." Amber was quite the opposite of her mother. She had long red hair, green eyes. Freckles dotted her face. The only thing that was similar with them was that Amber was rather tall for a nineteen year old.

"Keyword was might," Laura replied. "But in the meantime, you should do your school work."

Amber shook her head. "No point." She stared off into the distance. "My school was glassed, my friends and professors killed. If dad hadn't given us the advance warning, then we wouldn't be alive."

Nodding, Laura continued to cut another carrot, sliding the diced bits she had to the side of the cutting board. "Well, then I guess that you might want to look into getting accepted into a new college, so you can become the bio-engineer that you wanted to be."

"How can you brush away the fact that the Covenant just mopped the floor with our military stronghold?" Amber blurted out. "They've killed billions, and you seem to ignore it."

"Amber, I've been seeing this happen as I grew up," Laura started. "It's a natural occurance now. You'll have to accept the fact that humanity's screwed."

"Not if I can help it," Amber said, pulling up her right sleeve to reveal a UNSC tattoo. "It was supposed to be a surprise for dad, but I joined the UNSC last week."

Laura stabbed her knife into the cutting board, and turned to face her daughter. "Why didn't you tell me? I have a right to know these things!"

"You wouldn't have let me go!" Amber shouted back. "I have freedom. I'm nineteen! I can do what I want! And I want to be part of the solution."

"You don't know what you're getting yourself into," Laura warned her. "It's hell out there. But, if you want to go, I'll let you go. Marine, ODST, Spartan?"

"What?"

"What are you joining?"

"Oh...Marines." She paused thinking it over. "Can you just walk in and sign up to be a Spartan?"

"Nope."

Amber nodded. "Well, at least you're respecting my decisions for once. I ship out today. I have an hour."

Laura shrugged. "Wouldn't have been much of a surprise for you dad since he wouldn't be here by then."

"I was going to be in his squad, or at least try to be." Amber sighed, and headed for the door. "Thanks for taking this so well."

"I've seen death all around, you've seen death all around," Laura said. "But you do have a lot of your father in you." The door slammed, and Laura turned to see that Amber had already left, without saying goodbye. "Then again, you really don't have a father."


	3. Cara

_Chapter Thr_ee:_ Cara_

Sergeant Guns sighed, looking over at the remains of the Master Chief's Mark V armor. "This is some quite extensive damage," he said, holding up a scorched green gauntlet. "A-239's armor was in better condition, and there was a big gash the the chest."

John shrugged. "You get shot at a lot a more when your a Spartan," he explained, shifting his helmet of his new armor from his hand, and tucked it under his shoulder.

"Yeah," Guns tossed the hunk of metal onto the table of the armory. "It was obsloete anyway. This new Mark VI just came from Sondheim this morning." The door opened, with Emile and Six entering in, fully armored. The two immediantly went to separate sides of the armory, with Six heading straight for the DMRs, and Emile to the M90s.

"We'll be taking some guns," Six informed them, setting his selected DMR down on a worktable so he could modify it. "Don't mind us."

Guns turned back to Chief. "Do you have any idea how expensive this stuff is, son?"

"Tell that to the Covenant," John replied, putting his helmet on. There was a faint hiss as the air pressurized in his suit.

Emile came over to him, holding his modded weapon in his hands. The barrel was longer, and there was a reflex sight on it. It was a retangle frame with a small piece of glass with a laser red dot on it. There was a small rack on the each side, with each one holding six shells so he wouldn't have to do much work on reloading. "How does this look?" he asked, handing it to John. "There wasn't much to add to a shotgun."

"It's not what I would use, but it'll pack a punch," he commented, peering down the sight. He handed the weapon back, and began walking around to adapt to his armor.

"Bring it over here to the zapper," Guns instructed him. Testing the shields and some Covie tech."

Six looked down at the DMR scope in his hand. He was modifying the weapon so it could be used at short ranges. "This'll work," he mumbled, grabbing an EO tech sights, and attaching it. He raised it, and aimed at a box of shotgun shells on the far side of the room. "That looks good, now for a better stock and barrel..."

No one really noticed the woman in the suit walk in. And no one really noticed the ONI emblem on her suit either. "Noble Six."

"What?" Six asked, turning to face her. He saw the ONI sigil, and instantly snapped to attention. "Yes ma'am?"

"We've got a package for you," she explained, setting her breifcase down on a table, and flipping the latches. "Just another prototype." She reached in an pulled out a small, silver, rectangular piece of metal, with a glowing blue circular center. "We call her Cara, or AI CRA 234-4."

Six blinked as he took the AI chip. "Wait...you're giving me an AI? Like Cortana?"

The woman nodded as she began to leave. "Yes, Spartan. After all, you're just ONI's lab rat." She grabbed her case and left. John and Emile were looking over at him, while Cortana appeared on a pedistal the the middle of the room.

"So, first ONI gives you armor, and now an AI," Cortana stated. "Well, at least I'll have someone to share an intelligent conversation with."

Slotting the chip into his helmet, Six soon got his first glimpse of the AI. She was quite like Cortana, having the same texture body, but shorter, and more teal. She had long flowing navy hair, and appeared to be much younger than Cortana depicted herself. "Hi."

"Hi," Six replied. "So, I guess that we're working together now."

"Yeah," Cara said. "We are." On the comm screen, she was looking all around at things off screen. "Wow, this is quite amazing. I've never been inside a Spartan's armor before."

Cortana chuckled. "Trust me, that feeling fades fast. Wait until we get into combat. That's intense."

"I can't wait!" Cara exclaimed. "I've never seen any of the Covenant speices up close before. Will I get a good chance to study them?"

"Yeah," Cortana replied. "I'll send some of my personal files. But first, what's so special about you? That ONI woman seemed to make out that your something new."

Cara shrugged, and glanced out into space. "Well, I was created to work specifically with Spartan IV's and their armor configuration. And they tried a new creation method," she said, despondantly.

"Which was?"

"I don't know. I wasn't there the whole time."

Six shrugged. "Well, this is freaking awesome, but we really need to get to that ceremony, it starts in a few minutes."

"I still need to test Chief's shielding," Guns said, stepping over to a computer. "Stand in that red square."

John did as instructed, and a few seconds later, his shields were brought down. Yellow bursts of energy crackled on his armor for a couple of seconds, and then recharged. Guns nodded. "It looks good. Just jump behind some crates or a wall or something when their drained, and wait for them to recharge.

"Either that, or he could hide behind me," Sergeant Avery Johnson said, walking out of the newly arrived elevator. He was dressed in the formal wear of the Marines. White shirt and hat, and blue pants. "You done with my boy here, Master Guns? I don't seen any training wheels."

"His armor's working fine, Johnson," Guns replied, iritated. "so shut your chilly hole." He turned to Chief. "Well, you're free to go. But start out going slow with the new armor. You'll need to get used to it."

"Don't worry, I'll hold his hand," Johnson remarked returning to the elevator. Chief followed him into it, and Six and Emile followed. Six had his new AI chip in his hand, looking at it. One could almost see his excited smile through his visor.

Guns went back to the computer. "So, Johnson, when are you gonna tell me how you got off that ring in one piece?"

Johnson shook his head. "Sorry Guns, that's classified."

Scoffing, Guns whipped back around and glared at him. "Classified my ass!" he exclaimed as the elevator started moving up. "You can forget about those attachments for you A2 scope..."

"Well, he's in a fine mood," Six commented, as the door to the elevator opened, and the all walked out. "Maybe Lord Hood didn't send him an invitation."

Emile nodded. "Either that, or he noticed that we walked out with two of his guns." Chief looked over at Six, and yanked the modded DMR off his back, and began inspecting it.

"Earth," Johnson suddenly said, catching the Spartans' attention. "Haven't seen her in years." Out of the window, they saw the huge globe that was Earth. Around it in space, there were countless ODPs, each one ready to blast any invaders to hell.

Johnson went on. "When I shipped out for basic, the Orbital Defense Grid was all politics and theory. Now, the Cairo is one of three hundred Geo-Sync platforms. Each one of those MAC guns could put a round through a Covenant Capital Ship."

"Why are you telling us this?" Six asked, "Cortana's been more than glad to already give us that info."

"So?" Johnson asked. "Anyway, ships have been arriving all morning. Nobody's saying much, But I think something big's about to happen."

There was a grim silence, which was broken by an adolesent voice saying; "That's what she said!" Everyone stared at Six, who in turn stared at the AI on his comm screen. "What?" Cara asked, her smile fading. "Wrong time?"

"Yeah," Six answered. "And, work on execution. That might've worked if you thought it out a little better."

Cara nodded. "I'll try to get it right."

They reached the hall just outside of the bridge, and Chief handed Six back his DMR, which he realized he was still holding. An automated camera floated by, but not without turning to get a few shots of the Spartans. "I thought you said there wouldn't be any cameras," Chief said, glancing down at Johnson.

"And you said that you were gonna wear something nice," Johnson retorted. Chief glanced down at his armor and shrugged. "Folks need heros, Chief. Gives them hope. So smile will ya? All three of ya. Smile while we still got something to smile about."

Inside of the bridge, where Hood was standing, waiting for the Spartans to approach. Marines had gathered all around, appauding as they caught sight of the armored beings. The Spartans, with Johnson alongside of them, walked up to Lord Hood.

"Gentlemen," Hood started. "We're lucky to have you back..." A Marine ran up to Hood and whispered in his ear. "Go ahead, Cortana," he said, glancing over to a pedistal.

Cortana appeared in a flash of purple. "Another whisper sir, near Io. We have probes en route."

Hood sighed. "I apologize, but we have to make this short."

Cortana looked up at Chief and Johnson, and smiled. "You look nice."

"Thanks."

"Thank you."

John and Johnson looked at each other, before returning their attenting to Hood. "Sergeant Major," Hood said, taking a medal from a man standing next to him. "The Colonial Cross is awarded for acts of daring and devotion. For a soldier of the United Earth Space Corp, there can be no greater honor."

Johnson puffed out his chest as Lord Hood pinned the medallion on. "Commander Miranda Keyes," Hood took another medal out. "Your father's actions were keeping with the highest traditions of military service. His bravery in the face of impossible odds reflects great credit upon himself and the UNSC. The Navy has lost one of its best."

Emile elbowed Six. "Is it just me, or does that Miranda person look familiar?"

Six shrugged. "From where?"

"I don't know. Somewhere. She kinda reminds me of that Doctor Halsey..."

Chuckling, Six shook his head. "You're saying that they're related? I doubt that. It's probably just a coincidence."

Alarms started blaring all over the station, and Marines groaned and ran for their weapons. "I'm picking up fifteen Covenant captial ships holding position just outside the kill zone," Cortana reported.

"This is Admiral Harper," a voice said over the comms. "We're engaging the enemy."

"Negative," Hood replied, stopping him. "Form a defensive perimeter around the cluster." He turned to Miranda. "Get to your ship, Commander. Cortana, you have the gun. Light them up a soon as the get in range."

"Gladly," the AI replied deviously.

"The fleet that destroyed Reach was fifty times this size," Hood mused.

"Sir!" a Marine shouted, running up to him. "Additional contacts! Boarding crafts!"

"They're trying to take our MAC guns offline, and get a clear shot at Earth," Hood relized. "Spartans, defend this station!"

"I need a weapon," Chief said. Six and Emile yanked theirs off their backs, and pulled the bolt back, in Six's case, or pumped the shotgun, and ejected a perfet usable shell, in Emile's case.

"Right this way," Johnson said, walking towards a small weapons cache.

Six was tense. The Covenant were at Earth. _Earth. _The one place that no one wanted them to be. Well, he figured they'd be here soon enough.

* * *

**A/N: This chapter is unbetaed, because I wanted to get it up as soon as I could. Personally, I don't think that I should've done that, but oh well.**

**And, another topic of discussion. Noble Six's name. Does he have a name? Yes. Will I state it in the story? Maybe. I kinda like the whole fact that you never really know who Six really is.**

**And, a new AI for Six. Something I've been planning since the middle of TABTO. Will she and Cortana get along? Or will they hate each other?**

**And, Emile and Six get modded guns. I'll admit, I use mainly some COD attachments, after playing that for a little while, I figured why not mod Six and Emile's guns?**

**I get the feeling that there was more I was gonna say down here, but I forget, and I want to get it short and sweet. So...**

**Peace out!**


	4. Dedicated to Emile

_Chapter Four: Dedicated to Emile_

**-Emile's Point of View-**

The minute we were given the order, Six and I were ready, weapons in hand. Chief still hadn't gotten any weapons, but Johnson was leading him over to a weapons rack mounted on the wall.

Deciding to screw the stairs, I jumped over the railing. The fall wasn't that bad, and the shields of my black EVA armor barely flickered.

"Emile, get up to the door," Chief ordered, placing two SMGs on his hips. "Blast them as they come through. Six, stay here on the stairs and provide some short ranger sniper support."

Marines prepped a small barricade with some crates, propping their rifles up on them. Johnson mounted his heavy machine gun turrent that he was carrying on it, and pulled the bolt back, ready to unleash rapid fire death on any unlucky alien.

Six was prone on the stairs, DMR ready to fire. Chief had a BR55 in his grip, keeping it steady at the door. I casually walked up to the door, and then to the left, kicking a pointless crate aside as I did.

"Malta, what's your status?" someone asked over the comms.

"Um...they're latched. Preparing to open."

"Any chances of Hunters?" I asked, butting into the conversation. I personally didn't care though.

"Negative, Serria," was the reply. "The boarding craft aren't big enough. "Just big bastards and little bastards. They're using their standard formation, little bastards up front, big ones in the back."

"Copy." I checked the ammo count on my HUD, which read a full eleven shells. There was one that I had ejected earlier, but that didn't matter. I took one off the rack on one side, and slipped it in and pumped it. "Six, pass me a frag."

He reached into his side pouch, where I swear that I saw a can of Coke, and fished out a grenade. With a perfect arc, he tossed it to me, fortunately keeping the pin in.

"Covenant forces are fifteen seconds out," Cara informed us in her cheery adolescent voice. I thought I heard Chief grunt, which I figured was because it wasn't Cortana in his head.

"Cara, how old are you?" I asked out of the blue. It was really random, since the tension in the room was so thick, you could cut it with an Energy Sword, and it would still be thick. Most of the Marines in here were preparing to fight, some preparing to die.

Cara folded her arms on the screen, and tilted her head to the side. "Why does that matter?"

I shrugged. "You seem kind of young," I replied, taking aim at where the Covenant forces would come through, all set to pump them full of lead.

"Well, my...um...avatar is designed to looked fifteen," she answered hesistantly. "It was a personal choice."

Sparks danced along the middle of the door, Covies trying to get in. "Whatever," I said, switching into combat mode.

The doors erupted off their hinges, and a large salvo of bullets fired, mowing down most of the Grunts leading the two Elites. Pulling the pin, I let the frag fly, bouncing it off the side of the door and into the room with the aliens.

A second and a half of Sangheilian shouts, the grenade detonated, and I rushed in. One Elite had gotten out of the way in time, the other's arm was shredded up to the elbow. Without thinking twice, I blew the injured Elite's head off with a single shot, finding happiness in the amount of blood that splattered on the floor.

The second Elite screamed in rage, unleashed a wave of plasma from his dual Plasma Rifles, most of the hot bolts missing, but more than I wanted hitting my shields. "Take this, hingehead," I said, firing from the hip, and neatly hitting him in the side.

Recoiling, the Elite leveled his rifles again, only to meet another round of buckshot in the chest, knocking him to the ground and completely draining his shields.

Dropping my M90, my hand flew to my shoulder and withdrew my kukri. The Minor was struggling to stand up, so I kicked him in the head. Then, I pounced on him. He was bucking and squirming, obviously a newb to combat, as he seemed completely inexperienced. His eyes widened as he saw the blade coming down.

He was dead before he could see the kukri splitting his skull and letting loose a flood of blood.

"That looked rather brutal," Six commented as he and Chief walked over, each loading new clips into their weapons. The Marines were staying behind for the time being to guard the bridge.

"Perhaps," I replied, retrieveing my shotgun from the floor. "But that's the way I like it. Show them no mercy."

Chief nodded, and put his rifle on his back. "We need to drive the Covenant off the Cairo," he said, which, in my opinion, was stating the quite obvious. "Cortana's going to light up the cruisers with MAC rounds when they're in range, and hopefully we can prevent the Covenant from landing on Earth."

"They're going to someday," Six muttered, also putting his DMR on his back and folding his arms. "Our days are numbered."

I smacked the back of Six's helmet, careful to strike below the AI slot. "Come on," I said, "don't be that way. Someday, we'll beat the Covenant, and you can go be with Ashley, I can-"

"I don't want to be with Ashley," Six blurted out, following behind Chief as he started walking down the corridors, occasionally passing by some piles of burning wreckage. "Not anymore."

I nodded. "So you and her had a falling out? That's explains why you were early getting back. What the hell happened between you two?" I asked, loading three new shells into my gun. "It had to be something serious, after all you _killed _someone for her."

"Hey, that bastard raped her. I was pissed," he argued, "I wasn't thinking clearly. I mean, they made me watch the whole thing. Don't tell me that you wouldn't be out seeking payback. I just didn't think."

I scoffed. "Well, you obviously weren't thinking about others," I retorted, shotgun hanging limply at my side. "You cost me my whole leadership role."

Six sighed. "Sorry, I didn't know at that time. Had I known, I might not have done it."

I rolled my eyes. "Sure."

"I meant it," he growled. "Seriously, can't you ever get over something?"

Then, I exploded. "You don't even know the whole story!" I shouted right at him. "When you killed that trainee, someone who liked him killed herself over it! And I had feelings for her!"

Six recoiled, backing away from me. "I'm sorry! I didn't know!" he shouted at me.

"It was fine until Ashley showed up on Noble," I continued. "Even though I didn't know you were the one that ruined my life, every time I saw you and her together, it made me feel mad. Knowing that someone's life was going well."

Chief sighed, rubbing his temples, or rather his helmet. "Is it just me, or does it seem like we do more walking and talking, and arguing then actual fighting?"

"Now that you mention it, it does..." Cortana mused. "What do the two of you think?"

Niether of us responded, just glaring at the other. "Perhaps if you actually heard some of the conversations she and I had, you wouldn't think that we had it all made." Six snapped.

Chief turned on his heel. "Lock it down. Emile, go round up some Marines and clear off some of the boarders on the other side. Six and I will keep going this way."

"Why can't I go with you?" I asked. "I hate going it alone. Six should go alone to cool down."

"You know how Six is, managing to get shot at the most inoppertune times," Cheif replied. "I'd feel better keeping him in plain sight."

I threw my hands up. "Fine." I stared at Six. "At least Chief finds me good enough to go on my own." Six simply flipped the bird as I walked away. That went well.

The hallways were mostly empty, even though we were being attack. Occasionally, a Grunt or Jackal would wander out into my sight, and they recieved the grand prize of death. From shotgun to the face. That answers every problem.

"So, does Six always get like that?" Cara asked, popping up on the screen.

Cortana appeared on a screen directly below that, effectively blocking almost half of my vison. "From time to time. He's quite sensitive."

"I see..." Cara mused, tapping her chin. "Perhaps I can get him sign up for therapy..."

The thought made me smile. Six forced to endure hours of some guy prattling on about the IV's problems, and how to fix them. "I think therapy is just what Six needs." I turned the corner, shotgun raised, and blew away Grunt hiding in the corner. "Years of it."

Cara looked off to the side, and then back at the screen. "There, done. I made an appointment for November 15th, should he be available." She paused, and glanced down at Cortana. "So, have you been an AI for long?"

"About three years," she answered, "or was it four? 2549...yeah, three."

"It's nice seeing the two of you," I said, not really meaning it, "But I can't see half of what I'm doing. So can you kindly get the hell of my HUD?"

They both stared at me, and then the screens vanished simutaneously. "Happy now?" Cortana asked, SOB toned.

"Very."

The triple bursts of Battle Rifles echoed in the room to my right, and I peered through the door to see an Elite General pumping his Concussion Rifle into several helpless Marines. Some didn't even have armor on, and some didn't even have a weapon. "If you'll excuse me, I need to save the day."

I causally walked toward the Elite, putting the red dot of my reflex scope on his head, and firing. His shields were far stronger than any other Elite's, and he was able to withstand three blasts.

He looked over, and growled in rage when he saw the demon. One of his four-fingered hands reached to his hip and pulled off the Energy Sword hilt, while he used the other to throw the rilfe.

I ducked, and when I looked up, the Elite had his sword coming down on me. I rolled to the side, barely managing to dodge it. The Elite got his free hand on my M90, and tore it from my grasp and effectively pulling me to the ground.

Once again, I rolled away, and stood up as he brought the sword down, leaving a huge sorched gash in the floor. The Marines had stopped firing, idiots, and were watching the fight. My hand unsheathed my kukri, and I took up a defensive position.

The General dropped my M90, and slowly began stalking towards me, muttering some Sangheili. "Demon, you will perish," he said, in broken english. "You and your kind have no chance against a superior species."

"You wanna say that to my face, hingehead," a Marine asked. When the General looked up, he saw the rocket hurtling straight at him. At least someone had sense enough to shoot it while it was distracted.

The Elite's eyes widened in shock, and it didn't have enough time to react. The rocket impacted, blowing his whole left side off. The force of impact knocked my on to my back, as the remains of the Elite fell to the ground, purple blood covering everything around it.

One Marine went over to inspect the body, shaking his head. "You were a little off, Phillips."

"Oh come on," the Marine complained, tossing the empty M41 away. "At least I killed it."

The first Marine sighed, and kicked my shotgun over to me. "Came just in time, Spartan. The four of us got pinned down with the recruits."

Taking my M90 in one hand, I jumped up, and looked around. Four Marines stood out, since they seemed the least scared. There were about twenty recruits, with this being their first engagement. Most of them had armor on, but it was inproperly worn. Someone even had their chestplate on backwards. Others didn't even have armor, stuck in their fatigues.

"So, these are the new guys?" I asked, walking over and giving them a death glance behind my visor, just to scare them. Expect for the one curled up in the corner, holding a DMR like a teddy bear. That one had some problems.

"Yep," the Marine that had blown the Elite away replied. His bars on his shoulders designated him as a Corporal. He removed his helmet, revealing the red hair underneath. "Most haven't even held a UNSC weapon," Tallert said, tucking his helmet under his arm.

I gave a small chuckle. "I can change that." I pulled my M6C pistol out, and handed it to one of the newbs. "Pass it around."

"Sarge, how long are we going to bunker down here?" Tallert asked, shifting his helmet to his other arm. "We have to be able to get off the Cairo if we need to."

The Sergeant nodded grimly. "I know that," he said. "If worse comes to worst, then we can use the recruits as sniper bait while we get out." He said it quiet enough so they couldn't hear him.

"That's a little cold-hearted," replied Tallert.

"So?" I asked. "They don't have much value untrained. They're just more civilians for all I care."

Tallert scoffed. "You guys really aren't humans, are you?" he asked. "I would think that you'd at least care for other people."

"You want human, you go to Six," I told him, glaring down at him. "You want results, I'm what you need."

There was a quiet silence, I knew I had him beat on that one. "I heard once that Spartans that acted human were failures," Tallert said, turning away. "I think it's the other way around."

I chuckled. "Hell, kid, you wouldn't even be here if it weren't for some Spartan acting human. That got him killed."

"So?" he retorted. "I know what it's like to have a childhood."

"Oh snap!" some recruit in the back shouted. A quick death glance later, he was silent. I really need to carve a new skull on my visor. It really added some effect to the death glare.

Cara appeared on the screen, sternly glaring at me. "Just drop this. I don't want things to get out of hand."

"That's my line," Cortana said, appearing below her. "I can handle Chief and Emile. You handle Six."

I rolled my eyes and focused on Tallert again. "Kid, just because you mother was a Spartan, doesn't mean that you can get that 'more holier than thou' attitude with us. I can still kick your ass all over this room."

A Marine ran into the room, panting heavily as she reached the crate barricade. "There's aliens coming." Her armor was on better than the recruits, but still sloppy. One of her shoulder pads was upside down.

"What rank?"

"Elite Majors," she answered, steadying her breathing as she picked up a DMR adjusted her helmet. "They wiped out the second recruit baracks. No survivors except for me."

Tallert cursed as he put his helmet on, letting the arguement drop. "I don't think we can take them," he said, pulling his BR55 off his back. "After all there's only four Marines, five counting you," he told the new arrival. "They'll kick our asses."

"Hey, I'm only a recruit," she replied. "We have that Spartan, though."

Glancing up, Tallert shrugged. "Maybe one of them will get a lucky shot?"

"No," I said. "I'll wipe out every last one of them with my thumb before they could even land a lucky shot on a tin can." I pumped the shotgun to add effect to the sentence. "How many splitchins?"

"Six."

"Then get the M41's reloaded, someone take an SRS and get in the back," I ordered, taking charge. "Everyone else, get a Battle Rifle or SMG, and get prepared to kick some Covie ass."

The Marines, and the female recruit, set to it. The others were petrified. "I said get to it," I told them, raising my voice. "If you don't, you'll also have a Spartan to worry about," I said as I waved my M90. That got them motivated.

Seventeen seconds later, all of them were behind the barricade, weapons aimed at the door, ready to blast the unfortunate aliens to hell. I was the only one on the other side, tightening my grip on my M90.

Six Elites. That wouldn't be so bad, right? Nothing could go wrong, right?

* * *

Four ONI officers were gathered in the dark room, about to talk about this secret plan of theirs. One of them stood out, in a motorized wheelchair, with some device grafted to his throat. "We meet here today to discuss a very important topic," he said, in a computerized voice.

The second man shrugged. "What's so important? You're probably just making more stuff for that damn pet Spartan you have."

"Yeah," the third joined in, "I'm getting sick of that guy. The higher-ups think he's something special. We should get him disgraced or something, and let him live out his sorry life in some padded cell or something.

Smiling, wheelchair man continued. "Not what I was thinking, but you're close." He faced the other three, tapping his hands together. "We're here to talk about 312, but it's not any new gear. We're putting him on trial for crimes against humanity."

There was a small amount of whispering among the other three men. Unbeknownst to them, everyone in that room had something against the Spartan, so this sounded like music to their ears. "Just what crimes are we discussing?"

"Oh, several," the robot man said. "Kidnapping, attempted murder of Spartan trainee, murder of an ONI offical and his personal ODST escort, to name the most severe ones."

"Just what do you want to do to 312?" one man asked, scratching his white beard. "I think I know."

Robot man stated what he had in mind. They all eagerly agreed. "Very well," the robot man said, "then we'll have Spartan B312 put to death for his crimes against humanity."

* * *

_**A/N: And thus, chapter four comes to a cliffhanger end. Mwahahahahah! It was beta-ed by my Dejae and shadowblazex22. Come to think of it, I have an opening for betas. Just one. I like to have three for varity. Just let me know. And if you want to, but the spot is taken, I will keep you in mind for future stories.**_

_**Anyway, has anyone else noticed the Star Wars similarity in Halo 2? In Star Wars, the Rebels wait inside the door to ambush the Imperials. In Halo, the Marines wait inside the door to ambush the Covenant.**_

_**FYI: Chief is wearing his Mark VI armor, Six is wearing blue Halo 4 Mark VI armor, and Emile is wearing black Halo 3 EVA armor.**_

_**And I heard that Microsoft made the Xbox Ones offline now, so that's good.**_

_**Peace out!**_


	5. Flashback

_Chapter Five: Flashback_

Ashley folded her arms as she looked around her newly-revenated room. It was sleek and modern, following several of the current fashions in her new magazine. She contently sighed, and settling in on the couch to watch some TV.

In the past 500 years, not much had changed with televisons. Same with cars. Most people attributed this to the fact that when humanity first established their first colony on Mars in 2080, most companies immediantly began to work on colonization equipment, making several advancements on those, and not other things.

She frowned as she flipped through the channels, not finding anything to her liking. There were sports, soap-operas, and then the ceremony for the survivors of the Pillar of Autumn, which ONI had claimed had ran into a large Covenant fleet.

Ashley had been there, aboard an ONI ship tracking Noble Six, and had seen Halo with her own eyes. She knew the truth about the ring, and the fearsome parasite that had been contained within it.

After a couple of seconds, she noticed that the scene was of the ceremony held the previous week. Lord Hood gave out awards to several Marines, ODSTs, and crew members. "Ah, why not," she muttered, tossing the remote on to the coffee table and kicking her legs.

Just as she got comfortable, the phone rang. "Son of a bitch," she muttered, standing up and walking over to answer it. "Hello?"

There were some sharp cracks in the background, followed by some shouting. _"It's me," _Six stated, as an muffled explosion echoed. _"There's something important that I really need to tell you."_

She thought about hanging up on him, but the sounds of the battle caught her attention. "Six, what the hell is going on? I heard gunfire and explosions..." Her voice trailed off as she made the connection. "Oh God. The Covenant? Here?"

There was a release of breath on the other side of the line. _"They're here,"_ Six replied, and several DMR shots sounded off after that. _"The MAC guns can probably take care of them, but in the event that they do land on Earth today, I need you to do me a favor."_

Ashley scoffed. "After what you did? Making me sound like a bad person since I don't care about my own child, that I never wanted to have in the first place?"

_"Damn it, Ash," _Six said, _"Forget about that for now. This is far more important. It's the damn Covenant!"_

"You're right," she apologized. "But in return for this favor, you owe me bigtime."

_"I can snatch some Spartan Lasers from the armory, if you want."_

"That'll do it," she replied, smiling. She had big plans to turn her house into a fortress, and would need lots and lots of guns. "What's this favor?"

_"There's two people I need you to get to cover, preferably a spaceport so they can get off as soon as possible," _he told her. _"Try not to let other people find out that there's aliens right above them."_

"If they look up, won't they just see the explosions?"

_"ONI's running a short campaign saying that it's a firework show. I'm sure a lot of people believe that," _he informed her, voice filled with sarcasm.

"Who are these people I need to escort?" Ashley asked. "And I'm not doing it for you. I only want the guns."

As Six told her, she scribbled the names and adress down on a notepad. "Okay, I'm on my way." Without waiting for a reply, or a goodbye, she slammed the phone back down on the reciever, and went to grab her pistol off the kitchen counter.

"Hello Ashley."

The voice caused her to jump. It sounded robotic, and slightly familiar. When she turned, she saw a man sitting in a wheelchair, a device grafted to his throat. "Remember me?"

"Who are you?" she questioned, without bothing to think. "Get the hell out of my house!" Her hand rested on her M6C pistol, and she took it from the table, and calmly aimed it at the man's head. "You've got to the count of three."

He laughed, literally in the face of death. "You don't scare me, Spartan." With a wave of his hand, a large black-armored figure faded into visiblilty mere inches from her, and snatched the weapon from her hands. The Spartan grabbed her forcibly by the shoulder, and threw her down at the feet of the wheelchair man.

"I call the shots, Ashley," he said, glaring her straight in the eyes. "These Spartans," he waved his hand at the black-armored Spartan holding her down, "are ONI's pride and joy. We used some of the test data from your precious Noble Six, and developed their armor and tactics. They are masters of stealth and combat." The Spartan picked her up, and tightened his fists around her arms.

Ashley struggled in the Spartan's iron grip, but was unable to break free. "You just might be the person I need," the man said, voice distorted by the machine attached to his neck. "Certainly, you can be used as bait for our trap."

"What-what are you talking about?"

A smiled played about his face. "Noble Six, of course. We're out to kill him." He flashed her a sinister smile. In that second, Ashley remembered who it was.

"No...you're-you're dead," she stammered, at a loss for words. "I saw your dead body."

He shook his head. "Now, we both know that's not true." Wheelchair man waved his hand at the Spartan. "Now, we have a Spartan to kill."

* * *

Six ducked as a green, over-charged burst of plasma sailed over him. "This is bad," he muttered, barely taking time to aim with his EO tech scope, and firing on the group of Grunts adavancing at him. "Where's the Chief when you need him?" They'd gotten split up in a firefight several minutes ago.

A Marine screamed out in pain as he fell to the ground, covering the smoking plasma wound on his chest with his hand. Other Marines ran out of cover to drag him back, but were pushed back by heavy plasma fire from the sole Elite in the room.

The fallen Marine reached his free hand out for his SMG, but plasma bolts landed near his hand. He screamed again, and tried to crawl back, but with his wound, he was a sitting duck.

"Toss me that sniper," Six ordered to one Marine ducking behind cover, clutching the weapon in his hands.

"Why?"

Six groaned. "I don't have time to deal with that, just give it to me." The Marine hesistated, and threw it over to him. Six caught it in one hand, using his other to place his DMR on his back. He pulled the bolt back, and ejected the spent shell before stepping out of his cover, preparing for action.

It all happened like it was in slow motion. He walked slowly, just like in the action movies, raising the SRS and firing, blowing a fist-sized hole in a Grunt's chest. The other Grunts jumped back in fright as their ally fell dead, and began to panic at the sight of a Spartan.

The Elite growled as it chucked a glowing blue orb at him. Six ducked, and the grenade went over him, landing somewhere behind him.

Pulling back the bolt to get rid of the empty round, Six took aim at the fleeing Unggoy, firing again and putting a round clean through one Grunt's heart and through into another's chest, killing them both.

Once again, Six pulled the bolt, and then fired, nailing a Grunt's methane tank. The poor coward was sent rocketing around the room, propelled by the air he breathed. The remaining Grunts were already out the door, running for their lives.

The Marine on the ground was dead, and the other three behind the barricade had been killed by the plasma grenade.

Six turned and aimed at the last alien in the room, the Elite, but it reached him first and knocked the rifle away, picking him up by the throat. It amazed most people, seeing as how Elites can pick up Spartans fully decked out in armor. After all, they weighed a ton.

It slammed Six against the wall, and laughed in his face, getting spittle on his visor. "You wretched demons," the Major muttered, "why must we put up with you? Your species are cowards, running from a fight. You demons are weak compared to us Sangheili," it snarled, "and your exsistance is worthless."

"Just what does it mean to exsist?" Six asked, struggling the the Elite's iron grip. "Perhaps, it's your species that it worthless." If you might die, might as well try to go out in style. If you live through it, you have some pretty good helmet-cam footage.

That pissed off the Major. It didn't appear to have any other weapon other than its fists, and its Plasma Rifle was laying on the ground, energy core depleted. "You demon's are pathetic!" it roared, punching Six in the stomach. "The Brutes find your kind to be little more than food!" It landed another punch.

Six coughed as the wind left his lungs, but soon was able to gulp down more air. "Next time you see a Brute, tell it to try us with some barbeque sauce. That stuff makes everything taste better."

"Filth," the Elite retorted, not knowing how else to respond to that remark. It threw another punch, and Six thought he was about to pass out from lack of air. Each of the Elite's hits force air out of his lungs, and he barely was able to suck anymore in inbetween hits.

The Major slammed him to the ground, and stomped on his chest. Six weakly threw his hands up to defend himself, but it was fruitless. After several stomps, Six finally whited out...

* * *

_**Reach, 2552**_

_Six stood, clad in his blue armor, his original Mark V, with Grenedier shoulders, and Commando chest armor. Pelicans flew overhead, evacuating wounded and civilians. He was separated from the rest of Noble Team, and the only backup he had was Viper Team, lead by Phillip A-217. _

_Ashley was with them, so that was a plus. They had a lot of catching up to do. Brutes were throwing themselves at the tower, making a charge for the evac birds. The six Spartans were making a final stand, defending the civilians._

_Carrie B122 had her SRS propped up on the crate barricade, which had been reinforced by Brute bodies, holding her aim steady at the door, where another huge pile of Covenant corpse lay, high-velocity rounds punching big holes in them._

_Alex A133 had his M41 Rocket Launcher ready, with his orders to target high-ranking Brutes, or hordes of brutes. So far, they'd been able to thin out the aliens._

_Ima B055 was weilding dual SMGs, and had racked up most of the kills alone. She was truly a badass, and she even took a Brute Captian on with her bare hands and came out victorious._

_Dyre A026 was the CQC specialist, with his M90 tight in his grasp. He was tense since he hadn't been able to use it yet, the other Spartans were doing a good job of keeping the Covenant away._

_Phillip A217 was out on the landing platform, directing Pelicans and civilians._

_Ashley was next to him, her MA37 fully loaded and ready to be unloaded into some poor bastard's skull._

_"So," Dyre suddenly said, "Ashley, you and Six bumping uglies?" He chuckled at his own joke, but no one else did. "You all know what that means, right?" he asked, hoping that if they didn't know, and he explained it, it would be funny._

_"Not really," Ashley replied. "But for you, it probably means kissing." That got a laugh out of the others. "And yes, I just insulted every girlfriend you'll possibly ever have."_

_Dyre scoffed. "You're just jealous that you can't have this," he motioned to his body. _

_"Yeah, I really wish I had that," she replied, sarcastically, looking at the equipment pouch on his belt. "That variant of armored pouch is all the rage."_

_Ima sighed and turned to Six. "You'll have to excuse the two of them," she said. "They've been like that for years now. Since before Meyers was killed..." Viper Team had a few seconds of silence for their fallen comerade. Ima snapped back to life. "Dyre wants to get laid by all of the girls in his squad, me, Carrie, and Ashley, but that's not going to happen."_

_"That's what ya'll think," Dyre replied, laughing. "But when you see the size of my viper, then you'll be begging for it."_

_There was a large amount of groans from the rest of the team. "You forget, Dyre," Carrie piped up, in a shy, high-pitched British accent. "We all change together. I've seen Grunts with bigger 'vipers' than yours."_

_There was an eruption of laughter. "Wait," Alex said, as the laughter died. "Since when did you go around looking at Grunt dicks?"_

_"Oh, forget about that," Dyre interrupted. "Let's talk about your chest, Carrie. It's kind of flat, you know."_

_"Can it, both of you," Phillip shouted into the comms. "We're running a professional evac op, and we don't need this mindless prattle."_

_"Amen, brother," Alex agreed. _

_"We have orders to fall back after the next wave of civvies, and I intend to do just that," Phillip continued._

_Three ODSTs ran into their room, followed by a group of about twenty civilians. "Get them to the Pelicans," Phillip ordered, waving them over. "And fallback Spartans."_

_Then, the Brutes burst into the room, brutal weapons in hand. With roars of rage and excitement, they opened fire on the helpless humans. The ODSTs turned and fired, but were easily crushed by a single swing of a lunging Cheftians hammer._

_Six lined up one of the brutes heads in his BR55's scope, and with a triple round burst, blew it brains out. Civilians were running past, with Alex helping them over the Spartans body barriacde. Occaisonally, one would get hit by the brutes spike barrage, but the aliens were mainly focused on the Spartans._

_Through the window, Six saw more brutes with thruster packs propell themselves up to the balcony, preparing to attack from the second floor. The last living civilian scampered over the barricade, and the rest of Viper Team began backing out of the building, firing as they went. _

_Six followed, picking off brutes as he went. By now, there were heaps of bodies laying around in the room, and the brutes were using them as cover. Six grunted as his rifle clicked empty, and he reached for another clip. _

_Behind him, two Pelicans had been filled and lifted off, leaving Six and a small group of seven civilians to the last Pelican. There wasn't a pilot for that one, but Six had skill as a pilot. It would be a breeze._

_ODSTs flanked the brutes, mowing them down with rapid fire from their weapons. Six took aim at the Cheftain barreling towards them. It was the last brute alive, which meant that some ODSTs had actually done something right._

_"Get to cover," Six ordered the civilians, who obeyed without question, running straight for the open hatch of the Pelican. An other teenage civilian was running from the brute, but the Cheiftan was gaining on her._

_One stopped and shook his arm, to get his attention. "My daughter!" she screamed, pointing to the figure getting chased by the Cheiftain. "Please, save her!"_

_Sighing, Six cursed himself for what he was about to do. He ran headlong at the Chieftain, motioning for the daughter to get out of the way. She dove left, and the brute raised his hammer to strike, but stopped when he saw Six. _

_He laughed a bit, taunting the Spartan. "Pathetic demon, risking your worthless life for a worthless life." He grabbed the daughter by her throat, and slammed her into the ground. Six winced as he heard bone breaking, and her mother screamed. From what Six could see, she was barely alive, struggling to crawl away._

_"What do you say to that, demon? You have failed to save her life," he paused and glanced back at the ODSTs behind him, each taking aim at his back. The brute tossed his hammer aside and pulled the brute shot from his back, and emptied all the grenades it held into the ODSTs. _

_Six took the opportunity. He dropped his rifle to the ground, and pulled out two blue spheres. Running at the chieftain, he activated the Plasma Grenades, and slammed them into its back, and jumped to the side, grabbing the woman's daughter. He ducked with her in his arms, hearing the brute shot grenades flying over him. Seconds later, there was a loud explosion, and then silence._

_The brute was on the ground, or rather, what was left of him was. There was a large patch of red blood, and a giant scorched mark around it. The brutes legs were obliterated, along with half of its abdomen. _

_Six released a breath, and walked over to the Pelican. He gentlely set the girl in his arms down on a small medical table conviently tucked inside. A civilian slowly came over. "I'm a doctor," he said, "I'll take care of her." Six nodded, and walked out to retrieve his rifle._

_The ODSTs were standing around outside, weapons in hand. An ONI official was with them, arms folded behind his back. "Spartan," the official said, "We're commandeering that Pelican for our evac. Please evict the civilians."_

_Six was reaching for his BR55 on the ground, and paused. Then he picked it up and looked back over to the Pelican. "There's enough room for all of you as well," Six pointed out. "There's no need to force them out."_

_The official scoffed. "So? They can't be near an ONI officer. It's an evac security protocol so they won't overhear classified information."_

_"I've never heard that before," Six said, putting his rifle on his back. "But I'm getting them off planet, and you all can feel free to join us if you want." He turned back to the Pelican, where the civilians were sitting around, uneasy._

_The ODSTs walked past him, and into the troop hatch. At first, Six thought that they finally agreed to travel with the civilians. But then they opened fire. _

_Six froze as the gunshots ran out, and the ODSTs tossed the bodies out. Anger raged inside of him. "Mom..." the daughter weakly called out, unsure of what just happen. An ODST took one look at her, pointed his pistol at her head, and fired. Soon, her body was tossed out the back with the others..._

* * *

Six woke up. He was getting dragged through the halls of the Cairo by the same Elite that had knocked him out. After a few seconds of reorganizing his thoughts, he acted. Pulling his knife from its sheath, Six plunged it into the Elite's arm, causing it to cry out in surprised pain.

He broke free from it and jumped up, preparing for the Elite's retailiation. The knife was still it its arm, and it pulled it out and tossed it aside. "You demons are hard to kill," the Elite admitted. "All the more honor I will get when I kill you!"

It lashed its fist out, but Six ducked and threw an uppercut, hitting straight in the mandibles. Bone cracked, blood gushed from new gashes, and the Elite roared out in pain. Six threw another punch, hitting it right in the stomach. The Elite doubled over, and Six grabbed its head by the sides of its helmet and brought his knee into its face, smashing its skull, finishing it off.

Six tossed the body aside, and looked around for a weapon. Nothing but crates of Covenant weapons sat around, which made Six realize that he was behind enemy lines. Groaning, he grabbed a pair of Needlers from a crate, and began searching for any signs of human life.

"Cara, where's Chief at?" he asked, peeking around a corner. A small encampment of Grunts was there, with the little cowards just standing there, doing nothing.

"First off, don't use prepositions at the end of a sentance, and secondly, Chief's not too far from here, heading toward one of the hangers," Cara replied. A blue diamond appeared on his HUD. "There, I marked him for you."

"Thanks." Six unleashed a wave of purple crystals at the Grunts as he dove out of cover. The aliens jumped in surprised when the saw him, and began running down the corridor. None of them got far, one by one they exploded from the Needlers needles. "Fear the pink mist," Six muttered, grabbing some ammo for the weapons from one of the corpses.

"Incidently," Cara said, starting a converstation. "While you were out, I detected large spikes in your brain activity. What were you dreaming about?"

"Nothing," Six lied. "I don't remember having any dreams."

Cara sighed. "Okay then, let me ask you another question. Have you ever kissed a girl?"

"Um...yeah, a couple of times," Six answered. "Why?"

"What's it like?" the AI asked, staring at him from the comm screen. "It's something I've been curious about."

Six thought about it. "Well, it's a nice feeling, but I can't honestly put it into words. Why are you curious about it? I thought AI's thought of humans as those organic wimps."

Cara bit her lip, as if she wanted to say something, but changed her mind. "Just wanted to know. That's all."

"Okay...You're not lesbian, right?"

"What? No!"

Six shrugged and let it slide. "How much farther to the Chief?"

"He's a couple of rooms away," Cara said, "not much farther." She paused. "Did you ever have...you know, do the horizontal tango?"

Six sighed. "No. Why do you care? Curious? Seriously, this is getting creepy."

"It's nothing," Cara sighed. "But do you have someone that you love? That you couldn't go through life without?"

"Yes," Six answered immediantly. "Why? I want an honest answer."

"You never know what you've got until it's gone," Cara said. "First chance you get, you go back to her, and spend a lot of time with her, because love is one of those few things I'll never know. You should consider yourself lucky."

Holstering one of his Needlers on his hip, SIx took out her chip and held it in front of him. Her hologram activated, and he saw her sitting down, her knees drawn up to her chest. "What?" she asked, sounding as if there were tears in her voice.

"What's wrong with you?" Six asked. "You were hard on yourself just now, but you were cheery earlier. What caused that?"

She didn't answer right away. "It's nothing," she said again. "Just let me be. I want some time alone."

Slowly, Six slotted her chip back into his helmet. He wanted to ask her what brought on the whole preceeding converstation, but he'd let her get her solitude. Because AI's are like gods. They can really screw up your life.

He looked out the window as he passed, watching surrouding MAC guns fire away at Covenant ships. Earth was in the background, slowly spinning as she had ever since her first day in exsistance.

"Life's like the Earth," Six muttered, "It doens't matter who owns it, Human, Covenant, Flood, it's just going to keep moving on. Nothing will change that. We should just accept the changes that come into our lives because there's nothing we can do about them. Sometimes, they're good changes, other times bad changes, but there always will be changes. So roll with the punches, and get on with life."

Cara didn't reply. Six didn't expect her to. So, he moved on down the hallway. Nothing out of the normal, other than the large Covenant ships lurking in orbit, like gods ready to smite their enemies. Putting his hand on the window, Six felt the urge to touch the planet one last time. The Covenant were going to plow right through this, just as they had with all other human planets. Well, they would as soon as their reinforcements arrived.

"Earth holds a special value to me," Six blurted out, hoping to get Cara into a better mood than she was. "I was born here. My parents raised me on New Harmony, and we were vacationing on a different planet when the Covenant came. They were killed, and soon after that, I was in training to be a Spartan."

Cara didn't reply.

"Listen, I don't know what caused that whole outburst," Six said, "but I had everything I knew stripped away from me. I've had it worse than you do."

"No, no you don't," Cara replied. "You have no idea what I've been through. I feel like I've been dragged through hell by devil himself. I've felt like no one ever cared for me, I've felt betrayed. But for all that, I've had more taken from me than you'll ever have."

Six blinked. He wasn't expecting that. "Maybe. Maybe." He let the conversation drop, and walked onward, set to find the Chief.

* * *

**Chapter Five was beta-ed by my usual two, Dejae and shadowblazex22. And I still have a third spot open, if anyone of ya'll are interested.**

**Anyway, Xbox One comes out in 20 days. Halo 5 won't be out until 2014 or 2015, I think, so I'm going to wait to get them. **

**But, yeah. I don't think there's anything more I need to say.**

**Peace out!**


	6. Down to Earth

_Chapter Six: Down to Earth_

"Son of a bitch!"

The recruit dove to the ground, with the green fuel rod passing within a foot of her head. Her blond hair now had a streak of black in it, and there was smoke rising from it. Then, an Elite put a round right through her head with its Carbine.

Emile was loading new shells into his weapon, mentally cursing the recruit. She had said that there were six Elite Majors. She forgot to mention the _Hunters _that were backing them up. The massive collection of worms had pushed them back three rooms, and killed two of the Marines, the sergeant and the sniper, and all of the recruits, leaving him with Tallert and that other one.

They now stood in a dead end room, an armory. Weapons were lined on the walls, with several missing from their designated spot. Explosives of all kind were now scarce, thanks to several Marine teams scavenging them.

"Hell of a place to die," Emile commented, shutting the door as another fuel rod impacted it. There was now a melted indent in the metal door, making it easier for the Covenant to get through. "At least we go out with a lot of weapons."

The female recruit looked up at him. "We're going to die? But you're a Spartan! You can get us out of this, right?" She seemed sad. But, most people who are about to lose their life are.

"Maybe, but we're not gods," Emile told her, pointing at the door. "You'll find that out as soon as that door is down, and the Hunters are in here."

Releasing a nervous sigh, she removed her helmet, releasing a cascade of ginger hair. Emile blinked as he stared at her face, ignoring the omnious bang at the door. "Damn, Tallert," he said, "there's another one of you."

"Wha...?" Tallert looked over at her, lowering his BR55. "What the hell?" Using one hand, he easily jerked off his helmet, revealing a striking image of the female. The only difference was the hair length, and some facial stubble on Tallert's chin. "Wait, aren't you..."

"Amber," she replied, still in shock. There was another bang at the door, and it started to cave inwards. "Amber Bently...But how..?"

"This can wait, right?" Emile asked, leveling his M90 at the door. "We're about to have some unwanted guests."

The door flew off its hinges, and the Hunters stood outside, growling something to each other. After a few seconds, Emile broke out into laughter. "They won't fit through the door! They're too fat!"

Tallert threw a random frag, hoping to deal some damage to the massive beasts. It rolled over by the feet of one and detonated. There was a splash of orange blood, and the Hunter fell to the ground with a heavy thud; a colossus falling to the earth during his defeat.

"Holy shit!" Tallert cried. "That actually worked!" He prepared a second one, but Emile stole it from his hands.

"This one's mine," he said, pulling the pin. He flung the grenade like a baseball, and nailed the other Hunter right in the chest. It bounced off and rolled behind it. Roaring in rage, the beast stormed forward, slashing its shield in front of it and tearing a hole in the wall. It made it three feet into the room when the frag detonated behind it, doing no damage.

"I've got a crazy-ass idea," Emile told them, somehow keeping his cool. "I'll need a grenade. I'll distract it." He ran off to the left, firing his shotgun as he ran. Tallert and Amber made a break for the grenades, which were conveintently at the far wall of the room.

Emile ducked as the Hunter swung the massive shield over his head. He felt the wind rushing over him, and rolled to the opposite side of the of the direction the Hunter swung. He now had a clear shot at the back.

Blood spurted out of the wounds inflicted by Emile's shogun, and the Hunter cried out in pain, lunging and Emile. The Spartan sidestepped the attack, and dropped his M90. His hand flew to his kukri, and he jumped forward, climbing onto the Hunter's heavy metal.

With a roar of annoyance, or maybe just because the Hunter liked to make noise, the behemoth swung his body with all its might, flinging the Spartan into the wall. Emile crumpled and fell, his shields broken, and his weapons far away.

Emile saw a SMG laying on the ground several feet away, in between him and the Hunter. He began crawling for it and was still several feet away when he collasped. His body had taken quite a bit of damage from that throw. He reached his hand out for the weapon, when the Hunter stepped on it.

The hulking creature seemed to laugh at him, his helpless victim, as he approached for the final kill. Emile resigned himself his fate, since his body seemed to be unrepsonsive to his commands to get up. Everything was sore.

Then the triple round burst of the BR55 echoed out, and a splash of blood flew out of one end of the Hunter's wormy head. It turned, raising its shield to protect itself from the fearsome...Tallert? Seriously, no Marine had the balls to come at a Hunter without a Spartan, Scorpion, or tactical nuke.

He was walking slowly at the Hunter, taking aim with his Battle Rifle. Amber was no where in sight. The Hunter was pissed, and with a loud roar, it charged. Tallert took a running leap, and missed an early demise of decapitation by only a few inches.

Amber appeared out of no where, and clambered up the Hunter's back, using the spikes to hold on to while she repeatedly punched the exposed neck. Just as it had done to Emile, the Hunter flung her off, and she landed next to Emile.

The Hunter was now moving towards them. Emile's shields recharged, and he began to push himself up. "That was stupid," he muttered weakly to Amber.

She smiled weakly, and held up her hand, covering in orange blood. Emile saw the pin to a frag grenade around her index finger, and he too smiled, before he saw the shadow of the Hunter on them, indicating that the beast was above them.

He thew himself on top of Amber, hoping that his shields would be enough to protect them both from the blast. He was careful not to crush her, and then there was a bang, and then, silence...

Emile heard a thud of a fallen colossus behind him, and rolled off of Amber. "That's how you kill a Hunter. You've really got to almost get yourself killed. That's the easy part." He coughed, amazed that he was coughing up blood.

Taking a hold of a nearby bar, Emile pulled himself up. He staggered for a second, before regaining balance. "Kukri. Now," he ordered the still standing Tallert. Without a word, Tallert obeyed.

"Now, shotgun." Groaing, Tallert retreived the shotgun, and handed it back to Emile.

"Anything else, your royal highness?"

"Yeah." Emile pointed down at Amber. "Get her a medic, and get me a burrito." Emile blinked at his comment. "Oh shit. I'm turning into Six."

_"Serria A239?" _a voice asked over the comms. Emile recognized it as Hood's. _"If you can here me, there's a bomb on the station and you're ordered to the ground to help prepare a land defense in case the Covenant touch down."_

"Great," Emile replied. "What about Chief?"

_"He's on his way to disarm the bomb, and Noble Six is on his way to join him now."_

Emile slapped the M90 to his back, and stood up. "We have new orders," he informed the Marine and recruit. "We're going down the Earth."

Tallert sighed. "Really? I was just getting settled in here," he complained, slinging his rifle over his shoulder. He pressed the button on the side of his helmet, and began to bark out orderes. "We need a medic at our location, stat. Sergeant Grant is dead, along with most of the troops so we'll need some reinforcements. Get some people down here!"

Emile chuckled and shook his head. Tallert was a mere Corporal, and here he was ordering people around like he was Admiral Hood himself. Needless to say, not many would take his words into consideration, other than the medic.

The Spartan groaned as he moved his aching muscles, and stooped down to pick up a fallen Marine's MA37 Assault Rifle. "Stay here and hold the area," he ordered to Tallert. "I'm going to take out the Elites."

Tallert nodded, and went back to arguing with some Marine over comms. Emile held the Assault Rifle in one hand, and pulled his shotgun off his back with the other. He decided that two guns are better than one.

He stalked slowly through the gaping hole that served as the door, and saw the Elites. One was slumped over some crates, blood pouring out of a giant hole in the side of its head. Two were on the ground, one of them had its Energy Sword sticking out of it. Another was stuck to the wall, held in place by a metal pipe pierceing its neck. The last was hanging upside down from the roof, purple blood trickling down its crimson armor.

"What the hell..?" Emile muttered, turning over a dead Elite with his foot. "This is interesting." He took a closer look at the scattered holes in the bodies. They were definitely from human weapons, since there was no sign of charred flesh around them.

However, Emile never recalled any one taking out one of the Elites, let alone all six. The one killed with the sword might have been betrayed, but that's where it ends. The Elite killed by the pole had to be killed by something with incredible strength, since the piping was jabbed right through the armor. That meant either Elite, Brute, or Spartan.

And since there weren't any Brutes on station, and it was highly unlikely that the Elite would've turned against each other, that left only one option. Spartan. But as far as Emile knew, it was just the three of them. And Six and Chief were on the far side of the Cairo.

* * *

Chief fired a triple burst from his BR55, taking a Jackal down with a bloody headshot. He mentally groaned as his ammo count flashed red in the upper-right hand corner of his HUD.

He was in one of the hangers, where he had seen the Malta and the Athens go up in flames. Well, the void of space had extingushed the flames, but you get the point.

He jerked the clip out and tossed it to the side, and pulled another from one of his belt pouches.

"Chief, there's too many of them," a Marine said, jumping behind cover a giant crate next to the Chief. "We need to get some reinforcements."

Loading the in last clip for his Battle Rifle, Chief looked up at the Marine, remaining silent. Then, he simply went back to putting rounds into Jackals and Grunts. The Elites had been the first dead, gunned down by heavy machine gun turrents up on some platforms.

The Master Chief used his last thirty-six bullets to drill through the Covenant forces. Once his rifle clicked empty, he simply dropped it, letting it clatter to the ground. He pulled his backup weapon out, and aimed down the EO tech sight, pumping DMR rounds into a Jackal.

He'd found Six's DMR on the ground near a massacred Marine squad. Cortana had reported that Six was alive, and moving through the halls of the station, but was unconscious.

"Have you made any progress with that bomb?" Cortana asked, as the Cairo shook from another MAC shot.

"I thought you were supposed to locate it," Chief replied, sidestepping a Plasma Grenade. He threw his own grenade back at the Grunt, hitting it in the chest. The Unggoy doubled over from the impact, and blew up into pieces when the grenade detonated.

Cortana sighed. "I'm too busy to do that. I have to take out these ships. Oh, and one got down to the planet."

Chief muttered some curses, and took off running, blasting Grunts as he ran. He had no idea where the bomb was, so he went with the first plan that came to mind. Run around and hope to find it. "It shouldn't take that long, should it?"

There was a momentary pause. Several seconds later, a blue diamond appeared on his HUD, indicating to the Chief where the bomb was. "There, happy?"

"Very," Chief replied, pumping a DMR round into a Grunts face. He was headed for the armory, since he would have to pass through there to get to the bomb.

The hallway he was sprinting down was abandoned, with Marine and Covenant corpses littering the floor. Blood flowed from the bodies, creating a giant pool of red, blue, and purple in the middle of the room. With a huff, Chief stepped through it, noting that he was now leaving behind multi-colored footprints.

The armory was wrecked, with weapons laying all over the place. Sergeant Guns lay dead on the ground, steam rising from the recent plasma wounds that killed him. A M90 was tight in his cold, dead hands.

Crates were toppled over, spilling out clips for various weapons. Terminals were smashed, sparks flying from within them. But, most notable in the armory, was the blue Spartan with two Spartan Lasers on his back, and MA37 in had.

Six had his back to Chief, completely oblivous to the Spartan IIs presence. He was loading a full magazine into the Assault Rifle, and dumping several others into his pouch on his side. Chief noticed the Needlers on his hips.

"Six, what are you doing?"

Six jumped, and whipped his head around. "Oh, hey, Chief. Just getting some weapons. Nothing wierd about that, right?" He pulled the bolt back on the MA37, and held limply in one hand.

"Over doing it with the Spartan Lasers, aren't you?" Chief asked, snatching some BR55 clips from an opened crate.

"Well..."

"They're not for him," Cara cut in. "He's giving them to Ashley in exchange for her escorting two peope to safety down on the planet."

"Gee, what happened to 'don't tell anyone, since it's not legal?'" Six asked, smacking the side of his helmet, even though it had no effect on the AI. "I thought having one of these things would be awesome, but...she tattles on me too much."

Chief shook his head sadly, and held Six's DMR out to him. "You dropped this."

Six took the weapon, with his free hand. "Wait, where am I going to put it?" His back was occupied by Spartan Lasers, his sides with Needlers, and he was carrying an MA37. "Maybe I can dual wield..."

"That usually works better with SMGs and pistols, not larger rifles," Chief told him. Pulling his Battle Rifle off his back. "Figure it out as we move. There's a bomb on board, and we need to take it out."

"Right," Six said, and followed Chief in their dash out of the armory. The halls were relatively clear, and they only stopped to blast a wandering Grunt. "Just outta curiousity, has Cortana ever asked...strange questions?"

"What do you mean?" Chief asked, stepping over a dead Elite.

"Like what it's like to love and kiss and be human and all that," Six answered. Cara was remaining quiet, giving tacet permission for Six to continue his questioning. "Cara was acting all wierd a little while ago."

"Cortana's never asked me those questions," Chief answered. He peered around a corner, and saw two Elites turned away from them. "We'll do this-"

Before he could finish, two bright red lasers illuminated the hall. Both Elites fell to the gound screaming, smoke rising from the new holes in their chests.

"Bullseye, bitch," Six chuckled, Spartan Laser over each shoulder, steam wafting from the barrels. "No one's gonna miss them, not even their mothers."

"That's cold," Cara stated, before returing to her quiet state.

"...quietly," Chief finished, staring at the smoking bodies. "Or not." He motioned for Six to follow. The Spartan IV threw the Lasers onto his back, and picked up his MA37 and DMR from the crate he had set them on. "The bomb's not much farther."

"As I was saying," Six said, reverting to his conversation mode, "Cara was asking these questions about love and stuff. I don't know why she would. Any ideas?"

Chief shrugged. "Maybe it's because they're almost human, but not quite. If she was made from a cloned individual, then there's some that would debate that she is human."

"Is that the way you feel about Cortana?"

"..."

"Okay, then, never mind," Six said. "Back to Cara. She said her creation method was something new, so maybe it's something that will make her feel more human, and she just wanted to know."

"Maybe."

"Or, she could just be curious."

"Maybe."

"Or she could be a whole new generation of AI, made from an ever growing database of information, and wanted to update her knowledge on human emotions."

"Maybe."

"Or she's a gay robot that's disguising herself as an AI to try to get a milkshake covered in chocolate and a moa burger."

"May-what?"

Six grinned beneath his helmet. "Just seeing if you were paying attention."

Chief rolled his eyes. "I was. Most of your guesses ended with that she was just curious."

"Hm." Six said, looking back at what he had said. "Well, I guess that solves that."

"I've got another problem for you to solve, detective Six," Chief said, annoyed toned.

Six nodded. "What is it?"

"The bomb."

"Oh that!" Six exclaimed. "We should probably focus on that."

Chief turned the corner, and there it was. A purple device covered in spikes. "That's the bomb," Cortana said, stating the obvious. "And there's a lot of Elites guarding it."

"No problem," Chief replied, pulling the bolt back on his Battle Rifle. "Six, let's do this." He charged into the room, rifle blazing.

The aliens were caught off guard, and the first one was down before they had a chance to react. A Major jumped at Chief, but was nailed in mid-air by a red laser. Six came running in, Spartan Lasers ready.

A Plasma Grenade landed in the middle of the room, and Chief dove backwards, executing a reverse somersault. He easily stood back up and resumed firing. A Minor fell to the repeated fire, when two more lasers fired, one hitting a Major in the head, instantly killing it, and the other missing a target.

The Major that had barely avoided the red beam of death ran bravely at Six, roaring out loud. Six ditched the big scary lasers, and pulled out his Needlers. The Elite unleashed a wave of plasma at Six, who easily dodged it, and returned fire with needles.

The pink tracing crystals hit the Elite, who began to retreat, and broke his shields. Two more lodged into the Elite's neck, taking it to the ground, where they exploded, making another mess.

It was now two on two. An Minor rushed at Chief, and knocked the rifle out of the Spartan's hands. Before Chief could react, he was pinned on the ground. The Elite threw a punch, but Chief blocked it with his forearm, and grabbed the Minor's face with the other hand.

He squeezed down on the mandibles, and heard a sickening cracking sound. The Minor squealed in pain, clutching the wound as Chief kicked it off of him. He jumped up and kicked the Minor's face, breaking the skull and instantly killing it.

The remaining Major rushed at Six, who swung down with the Needlers, smacking it in the face. It screamed in pain, as Six planted his foot on its chest and pushed it to the ground. As the alien writhed and struggled, Six unloaded the last of his Neelder amm into it, and backed away to avoid the purple splash of blood.

Six looked at all the dead aliens in the room. "Well, that went well," he commented, tossing the empty Needlers aside and heading for his Spartan Lasers, Assault Rifle, and DMR.

Chief put his BR55 onto his back, and walked over to the bomb. Cortana appeared on a pedistal next to him. "Me inside you head now!" she ordered. Chief yanked the chip, and placed his hand on the bomb's control, which was beginning to beep omniously at a face pace. The beeping stopped.

"How much was left?" Chief asked, mainly out of curiousity.

"You don't want to know," Cortana replied, relieved that the Cairo was still in one piece. Chief stared out the window as Six joined him, lugging several weapons. An Assault Carrier was making its way through the hole that once held the Athens and the Malta. It was going to make it to Earth.

"Permission to leave the station," Chief asked Lord Hood over the comms.

"On what grounds, Master Chief?" Hood questioned.

"To give the Covenant back their bomb."

Over the line, Chief could hear a few Marines give hoots of approvement, and Hood sighed. "Permission granted."

Six looked back at the bomb, and over at Chief. "So, how are we going to do this?" he asked. "I can get a Pelican, and we can fly it in."

Cheif stared at Six. "Nope. That would take too long." He grabbed the bomb by two of the spikes, and began dragging it over into the middle of the room. "Time is of the essence."

Six shrugged. "Well, yeah." Chief walked back over to the controls for the hanger door. "Wait..." Six put two and two together. "Oh shit, this won't work," he protested, running over to Chief's side.

"What if you miss?" Cortana asked.

"I won't."

"You know," Six said, "Using 'what if' is a logical fallacy. You should've used-"

Chief pulled the lever, and the doors slowly began to open, exposing them to the void of space. Air was sucked out of the room, and Six had to release his Assault Rifle in order to catch the side of the pillar that held the lever. "Oh come on!" he exclaimed as he saw his MA37 go flying out into space. "I didn't even get to use that!"

"Get over it."

The bomb began to scrape towards to door, and Chief lept out from behind cover, and allowed himself to get sucked with the air. He caught the bomb by the spikes, and flew out into the stars

Six, seeing what Chief had in mind, released his grip on the wall. Through his undersuit, he could feel the chill of space. His armor had a larger air supply, and an air filter for extreme emergencies. He was weightless in the void, and that's when he wished he had a thruster pack.

"Do you need any help with that?" Six asked, watching as Chief manuvered through space with some simple kicks, bomb tightly in his grip.

"Just get to the In Amber Clad," Chief replied. "We're taking out that ship that's touching down."

"Right," Six said, as he began to slowly make his way through the zero G by kicking his legs, a Spartan swimming through the air. In the distance, he saw a Covenant assault cruiser making its way through the atmosphere, preparing for a land attack.

The frigate was holding position, waiting for the two Spartans. Six glided over it, and grabbed onto an antenna to slow him down. The minute he set foot on the ship, Cara activated his boots magnets, holding him to the ship.

Chief dodged a UNSC ship that was in shambles, the fires that burned outside were fueled by the air inside, and died out as soon as those were used up. The Assault Carrier was now coming closer and closer. Two Longswords flew underneath him, and dropped their payload onto the hull, blasting a hole for the Chief.

With little change in direction, Chief simply flew through the hole. The interior of the ship was rather drab, only the starship's power core in sight. Nothing of importance. Chief pressed the button on the bomb, and kicked off of it, sending it forward while pushing his back out of the ship.

He made it several yards when the ship erupted into flames, and pieces propelled into the zero G as they floated off into locations unknown. Kinda like the back half of a UNSC frigate, continuously moving through space.

"That had to hurt," Six noted, from the top of the UNSC frigate In Amber Clad. "I'm telling you, those guys are going to feel that in the morning. Not really, they're dead."

Chief rolled his eyes as he floated closer and closer to the ship, and finally grabbed onto the top of it, causing a huge thud.

"You know," Johnson said over the comms. "For a brick, he flew pretty good."

Six motioned Chief over to the service hatch that would lead inside of the ship. One Covenant Cruiser had made it to the ground, and they were going in to take it out, along with the Prophet inside.

* * *

_**A/N: Ending was rushed, ya might've noticed. Anyway, this chapter was unbetaed, because I felt that I've left you all deprived for too long. **_

_**Anyway, there's a new poll up on my bio for which story I should do next. I left short summaries on the bottom of my bio, so read them first. However, it should be noted that it might be some time before I actually start working on them, maybe a month or two, since I want to finish up some other stories first. As in the ones that I seem to start for no reason at all.**_

_**And, if you've read my newest story, **_**By Your Side, **_**I just want to say that it will have absolutely no connection to this story or the main storyline. I'm only using the characters.**_

_**Peace out!**_


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